Merlin
Merlin, the Father of Avalon is a character in Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders. He was inspired based on the Arthurian character Merlin and voiced by Bob Kaliban. Merlin is an ancient, eternal wizard who for over a thousand years has dedicated himself to preserving the goodness of Avalon and punishing those who want to use its magic for dark purposes. But as the show begins, Merlin gets banished into the wild magic by his former apprentice, the evil Lady Kale. Now, Merlin entrusts his current young students—Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders—to overcome the dark power of Kale and her Dark Stone and rescue him in order to save the entire kingdom. In their mission, the girls are aided by Merlin's own magic animal, a talking owl named Archie, and his own infrequent advice. "Darkness always returns, my child. But the strength and love of our friends will hold the darkness back." In the show Background to display the royal Sun Stone]] Merlin is the great and wise wizard that is over one thousand years old who has dedicated to preserve the goodness of the magical land of Avalon. He has long ago harnessed and bound the wild magic, so he could create a wondrous and beautiful place where humans and animals could work and live in harmony. As such, he is known as the "Father of Avalon". It was also him who planted the Travel Trees through the lands. A thousand years ago, Queen Morgana and her ancient wizards plotted to destroy Melin during the Friendship Ring ceremony, but their plan did not work and Merlin won. Since then, he has continued protecting the magic of Avalon, living in his home near New Camelot and making sure its magic can not fall into wrong hands. Merlin looks like harmless old man, and usually is wonderfully kind and compassionate, but he certainly has no tolerance for whoever wants to use Avalon's magic to harm. ]] Merlin is also a loving teacher who has trained the Jewel Riders in the use of the Enchanted Jewels and watched over the royal family for generations. Years ago, he had sensed darkness in the magically gifted young Princess Kale and so it was her kind sister Anya who has been chosen to inherit the royal Sun Stone and the throne of Avalon. The jealous and power-hungry Princess has never forgiven him for this. She began scheming to not only replace Anya (for which she has been banished from New Camelot) but also take all that is Merlin's and reign over Avalon, forever. Appearances As the series begins, Merlin is overpowered by Lady Kale's newly found Dark Stone (which was originally tuned by Morgana to destroy him) and caught in a glowing light sphere. After Merlin defiantly refuses to give her the power of magic of Avalon, she cruelly sends hurling into wild magic to be trapped forever entangled in its swirling chaos. But the this could not destroy the old wizard, and so he floated until the gliders found him and brought him to the safety of Cloud City. Merlin soon appears in Avalon to prevent her from stealing the Crown Jewels from his Jewel Box, but now he can not return until all seven Crown Jewels are collected again. and his key|left]] and Tamara|220x220px]] Merlin sends the Jewel Riders led by Queen Anya's daughter Princess Gwenevere, now accompanied by his faithful owl Archie, on a great quest to restore harmony in the magic. With his guidance, the young heroines need to fight to put an end to Kale's dark ambition and bring back peace to the kingdom. After each of the Crown Jewels is secured by the girls, an image of Merlin appears for a short while to talk with them. Eventually, Merlin outsmarts the seemingly invincible Queen Kale after she takes over Avalon and works to find and finish him off so she can rule all of magic—when he only feigns defeat to trick the evil woman into destroying herself. The gamble works, but the victory comes at the cost of his staff and without it Merlin will remain exiled. ("Sometimes we make sacrifices for our friends.") In the second season, Merlin is mostly absent until the very finale. After Gwenevere takes down Kale for good, Merlin confronts Morgana and some of the ancient wizards' ghosts in the showdown at the Center of the Wild Magic. In the end, thanks to Gwen and her friends, he again emerges victorious over his old enemies. After cleansing the Wild Magic of evil, Merlin finally returns to Avalon. File:Merlin bubble.png|With Kale in "Jewel Quest, Part I" File:Melin magic.png|Fighting Kale in "Full Circle" File:Merlin One Jewel.png|Vs Morgana in "The One Jewel" Behind the scenes Merlin was always shown with four fingers (including the thumb) in pre-production pictures, but has five fingers in the show. He was voiced by Bob Kaliban in English, Roger Carel in French, and Maurizio Scattorin in Italian. Merlin is like Henry Gardener in Avalon: Web of Magic, who was supposed to be mentor to the current mages, but was kidnapped by the Dark Sorceress before the current party even discovered their jewels; they found a hologram of him, but were not taught about their powers or mage levels by the hologram. Merlin’s speech in "Shadowsong" is part of Avalon's prophecy. Furthermore, a character named Marlin also appears in the series. See also * Merlin's cottage * List of characters Category:Humans Category:Major characters Category:Wizards Category:Male characters